Success Story

HOW DO YOU RECOVER FROM A HORRIFIC TRAGEDY?Eurobrokers/Maxcor

The SituationOn September 14th, 2001, The OppLab (then working as PerformXcellence) was called to set up a crisis management program for Euro Brokers, a company that lost several dozen people in the World Trade Center tragedy. Most of their administrative records had been destroyed along with their business infrastructure. They began their rebuilding effort without a formal plan or any sense of what their future would be.

The SolutionRebuilding the Business & InfrastructureThe main thrust of energy was focused on establishing the new workplace, setting up a new routine and finding some purpose in continuing on. The company’s leaders did not put their primary focus on getting back to business. Their main objective was to assist the families of the missing. This involved funneling information about the missing employees and providing financial assistance and counseling.There was nothing of what had existed before except the people themselves, but the information to rebuild the organization existed within the people that survived. The traders knew what to do to start trading again. The operations staff knew what they had to do. The facilities staff of the new building threw themselves into setting up the new offices. Like the DNA that exists within individual organisms, organizations have their own set of DNA that allows them to reform.A small army of employees set up banks of computers, television monitors and phones as we began organizing our crisis management plan. Not yet fully operational, they were back to their business of trading various forms of money, shouting bids and asks across the trading floor. Only seven days before, many of these traders were frantically escaping down more than 80 floors while some of their colleagues were still at their desks.Psychological CounselingA crisis affects people in very different ways. Whereas many employees took comfort in the counseling we offered or in sharing their feelings with their co-workers, others got back to work as if nothing had happened. Some spent much of the day talking about what happened, others did not speak of that day at all. Of those, quite a few went out of their way to help their friends get help from our counseling staff. For some employees it was important for others to know they were seeking counseling. For others it was uncomfortable.The one thing that did have meaning for many was keeping the company going so that it could help the families of those who were lost. If making money as a means unto itself was no longer relevant, then making money that would benefit the families was certainly a motivating factor. The company had set up a relief fund and a huge effort was made to raise money to help support the families with over 100 children who now had only one parent. And for many employees, this was their guiding purpose.Adjusting ExpectationsWhen lives are shattered along with the business that supported those lives, time becomes distorted. Normal routines that give us our boundaries are gone. Each day as I arrived to work with our client I didn’t know what I would find. Each day I would see a new face. Each day more trading desks became operational. More equipment arrived. And the problems our crisis team would face became more daunting. In the first days just showing up seemed enough. We had to learn to adapt and adjust our expectations. We had to keep on doing everything we could and not get stuck on what we couldn’t do.ResultsOne week after the attacks, and only two days after securing their makeshift quarters, a business that processes thousands of brokerage transactions around the world was back in business.Successful organizations are skilled at integrating human needs with business goals. But in a protracted crisis, how do you find the right balance? A central part of the solution is simple: growth. This firm is carefully but aggressively returning to its growth strategy. Bringing new people into the business and exploring acquisitions are powerful signs that the organization is moving forward.Another part of the answer may lie in engaging managers, beginning with front-line supervisors, in setting short-term objectives. The objectives would serve as benchmarks that move the organization forward. These objectives would have to achieve measurable progress like restoring central data, rebuilding the infrastructure to improve the functioning of the business, securing new space, increasing revenues and acquiring new business.Managing in a world of unpredictable change requires ongoing adaptation. It also requires being aggressively proactive. In the case of this client, it means operating on two levels at once at high speed. Like repairing a high speed train, you’ve got to slow it down at times to enable repairs but keep it moving fast enough to get to the station on time.This approach to management stresses the tenets of progressive management; empowerment, balancing long and short-term goals, clear and frequent communication among others. The main difference is that it accepts unpredictable change as the norm.Accepting that reality will change how we view organizations and how we manage. Organizations like our client will be laboratories in which we experiment with new strategies. It is important that we learn from these pioneering businesses.